Reviews for Apple Magic Mouse

Don't get me wrong, the IDEA of the wireless Magic Mouse is great. The ability to scroll with just the touch of a finger on its smooth surface is wonderful. Not getting hung up in a cord is terrific.

Now, if only the little darling would stay connected without me having to use my track pad once or twice a day to "find Bluetooth mouse." And if only the actual mousing experience wasn't so sluggish.

I'm a graphic designer. The mouse is a precision tool for me. Well, it used to be. With the Magic Mouse it's kinda "well the cursor is NEAR where you want it, isn't that good enough?"

I think I'd put up with the cord just to have a mouse that stayed connected to my mac, and moved as well as my old mouse on my previous mac. Or maybe I'll just buy a trackball. Yeah, that's an idea. Buy a trackball. Right, over to the store for me...

But sadly, I did not. First, there is no way to configure a center mouse button click, which disappointed me immensely. I use a center button to initiate 'Spaces' all the time and not having this function was a real bummer. You can configure the right (or left) button click to initiate Spaces, but you would lose the ability to get context menu items (regular right-click.) Secondly, I was under the impression that you could configure the entire mouse to function as a track-pad like on the new MB Pro's, but this is not possible. Before I purchased this product I searched all over the Apple site for a user manual with detailed feature and configuration options, but one does not exist as of 11/05. If you can live without a center button, I suppose this is a good mouse. It's tracking ability is very accurate and works well on a variety of surfaces, but for the price, there are better mice with more features to be had. If the next generation has center-click and the ability to turn it into a track pad, I'll probably get one. This one has been returned, however.

I like the functionality of the Magic Mouse, but sadly the quality does not live up to Apple standards. Mine has low usage and stopped moving the cursor, but the other functions worked. When I purchased a new one, the store told me they get about 6 months life. This is poor when taking the price into consideration and comparing to other mice.

It was working great for me for a while.. but then it started to drain batteies like crazy and i had to replace them about once a month.. Now it just doesent work at all and is in the garbage. overpriced. save your money and get a fancy logitech mouse instead

I've always been a gaming mouse user, so I'm most familiar with SteelSeries and Logitech mice. But for my Mac, I wanted an untethered mouse. I was intrigued by the Magic Mouse's innovation and potential, so I picked one up. After 6 weeks of heavy use, I've decided to swap it out for a new Logitech wireless with Darkfield. My main issue with the Magic Mouse is with its ergonomics...it doesn't have any.

But, before I go into describing the problematic issues, I'll list the positives of this mouse. Bluetooth connectivity, weight (significance), aesthetics, innovation, and construction.

The breakdown of issues is as follows:

***) Since the mouse is so flat, the hand and fingers easily fatigue because resting your finger tips on the surface can and will affect the functionality. So, you're forced to place them differently than you would on a traditional mouse.

***) With no significant arch (hump) in the design, your palm provides no stability/base for gesturing. Your thumb, ring, and pinky (in my case) are pulling double duty in providing movement and support for gesturing. This ultimately impacts the ability to gesture effectively. Two finger gesturing for web surfing becomes cumbersome, with the mouse either being tossed around the desk, fingers fatiguing, or having to resort to 2 hands. In the end, I've resorted to using the keyboard for easier navigation and functionality. A more traditionally arched shape would cure a lot of this, and it wouldn't necessarily compromise the gestural pane of the mouse.

***) This issue has nothing to do with ergonomics, but with the laser tracking. It's fussy and inconsistent. My desk is 2 tiered with a black top and a large white keyboard tray. The Magic mouse would work perfectly for a day on the keyboard tray and then inexplicably stop tracking with any effectiveness, jumping around or just hanging. I would have to move it to the black desktop for it to work properly again...and even that didn't work at times. Turning the device off and on doesn't help either. It would decide on its own to work properly again. I've tried a friends Magic Mouse on my desk and it exhibited the same funkiness. Not acceptable.

***) Lastly, the mouse feet. Two long thin rails are not sufficient for this purpose, whether or not the material is slick. It just doesn't play nicely on any surface. Try sliding a pair skis around a wooden surface or tiled floor and tell me how effective and smooth that is. A poor design decision.

Hopefully Apple will put more usability research into the design of their next mouse. Being different and innovative doesn't always work out for the user, and I'm surprised Apple hasn't put more thought into the usability of the this device, especially since they tout being the the forerunner in this space for personal computing. Like the title says, great idea...poor execution. Two stars for innovation and aesthetics alone. Otherwise, it would have been 1 for functionality.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for Apples next mouse...they'll get it right sooner or later.

it is beautiful mouse, but my old logitech mouse beat this one badly, i am dissapointed. I will give it another few weeks to see if I could fit into it?

love this mouse, the feel & functionality, no wires but constantly loses connection. Battery life is so short and once the battery gets to 50% FORGET IT.... just change them or you will end up taking a hammer to the poor mouse. The connection issues drive me mad and its not worth the money. I would rather have my old mouse back with the wireless usb plug. I also have the magic mouse pad i hope it doesnt have the same issues...i havent even taken it out of the box yet. If anyone knows how to stop this connection issue please inform me because i love the mouse otherwise. Im using it on a marble table.

Dear Jonathan,
I'm 99% sure that you have never used this "mouse" for your work. Because if you did, you would find out that is utterly useless to anyone but occasional Mac user whose only interaction with a computer is to check email or do some light web browsing (in Safari?).

What Jonathan doesn't fully understand is that the mouse is your one-way connection to the machine, not other way around. This mouse is perfect piece for MoMA exhibit and not for a serious computer users desk.

Dear Jonathan, I challenge you to design your next Apple hardware masterpiece using nothing but this mouse. You will find out in no time that it flies really nicely across your studio and it doesn’t lose much speed when it hits the wall, because it is very aerodynamically shaped.

Pros:
- Beautiful ambidextrous design
- Easy to configure and to connect from “cold start” with your Mac
- Tracks and responds very nicely for a wireless mouse
- Eliminates “one more wire” from your desk
- Great for casual Mac user
Cons:
- Relatively heavy for its size
- Doesn’t glide easily at all over mouse pad or a desk surface
- Awkward non-ergonomically design
- “Lag” feel when clicking – bad micro switch internal placing position?
- Surface feels “sticky” for smooth finger gesture operation
- Interference when used close to the Wacom tablet
- Useless with application that require middle mouse button

Conclusion:
For me personally the mouse, besides the keyboard, is the only piece of hardware that must perform flawlessly. This mouse fails way to short for my personal use. It seems to me that Apple for years now tries so hard to re-invent the wheel. In this case Apple is so stubborn in their mouse design philosophy – form over function.

If you want to interact occasionally with your Mac and OS X, and you want to use gestures, please consider the Magic Trackpad over the Magic Mouse.

And for you Jonathan.. get back to the drawing board and make us something good looking and functional.

I find that even after adjusting all the settings that I could find (on my Mac as well as in the software applications I use), the MM is uber sensitive to the lightest touch, and inadvertantly skitters away and flips to other pages on my document. It sometimes likes to zoom in on my images as well, "magically." This is most apparent in Adobe InDesign and Photoshop: pretty much the only aplications I ever use and costs me all kinds of time getting back to where I need to be. The mouse can also get a little crazy when scrolling through folders looking for a file. I love WHAT it does, by I don't love HOW it does it. Two Stars.

Unfortunately it's many problems far outweigh any good points. I'm happy with most of the Apple products I've bought over the years, but this mouse has so many annoyances that I'm really starting to hate it.
1. It randomly disconnects, even with fresh batteries. (Don't even think about using rechargeables). You can usually tell a disconnection is about to happen as the cursor movement will slow down or stagger.
2. Mouse clicks are often interpreted as a scroll. You find yourself desperately trying not to slide or move any other fingers, but more often than not it will interpret the click as a scroll followed by the click, resulting in a click above or below where you intended. Hitting a web link can take multiple tries if the mouse is having a bad day.
3. The black rails the mouse rests on have too much friction. Unless you lift the mouse slightly you can't make a smooth and precise movement.
Overall, it seems like Apple didn't do enough QA on the internal hardware. Externally it's lovely.
Maybe Apple will fix it in a future revision, and hopefully do a better job when testing it.